There is an audio book at audible.com where the change the name of his cat to “Blackman”. Not sure how I feel about it. IF left to the original, to hear it “read aloud” might keep jolting one out of the fearful tale.

Love this podcast. I remember seeing an episode of SCTV where the father tells his son a story of a lighthouse keeper being chased up the top of his lighthouse and cornered by a mass of hungry rats. I wonder if this story influenced that skit?

Raúl Moreno on

March 1, 2014 at 5:38 AM

On Guilles dde Rais, as I read about him recently as it was referenced by Arthur Machen in “The white people”, I’d like to try to make justice to his name in two opposite ways.

1. Source: Wikipedia’s article.Question_of_guilt
“(…) doubts have persisted about the court’s verdict. Counterarguments are based on the theory de Rais was himself a victim of an ecclesiastic plot or act of revenge by the Catholic Church or French state. Doubts on Gilles de Rais’ guilt have long persisted because the Duke of Brittany, who was given the authority to prosecute, received all the titles to Gilles’ former lands after his conviction. The Duke then divided the land among his own nobles.”

So he may have been victim of a plot, common thing and easy to do in that day, because lots of money and power were at stake.

From the testimony (under torture, I imagine, so completely useless) at his trial from the priest Eustache Blanchet and the cleric François Prelati:

“(…)attempting to summon a demon named Barron.”
“As no demon manifested after three tries, (…)
“Prelati responded that the demon Barron was angry and required the offering of parts of a child. De Rais provided these remnants in a glass vessel at a future invocation. All of this was to no avail (…)”

The really horrible thing about the occult black magic rituals he supposedly did is that he and some helpers sexually abused and killed dozens of kids.
For repugnant and very sad details about his ill enjoyment of his acts (if something of all this was true): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilles_de_Rais#Child_killer

Sorry if this is disturbing, but Lovecraft referenced it first :p

Raúl Moreno on

March 1, 2014 at 5:39 AM

BTW, Andrew Leman’s readings are amazing, and this one went one step further in a difficult dramatization.